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Criminal Events

The members of this thematic group study the behaviour of offenders, victims, bystanders, and law enforcement in the course of potential and actual criminal events. The starting point of the research is that crime takes place in particular situations– not only because of the type of people involved in them or the type of places where they occur – but also because of the behaviour of the people involved.
Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard
Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard

The aim is to describe the way different actors behave during potentially criminal events, explain the causes of their behaviour, and clarify the consequences of their behaviour for the outcome of the event. The research of this thematic group is strongly rooted in theories that focus on situational causes of crime. We particularly draw on theories that emphasize causal mechanisms between different types of actions within criminal events, and compare actions of the same kind of actor across different types of events, including script analysis, symbolic interactionalism, routine activity theory, decision-making theories, and micro-sociological theories.

Research topics

The research topics vary with respect to the type of actor (offender, victim, bystander, law enforcement), the type of criminal event (e.g. robbery, street violence, burglary, shoplifting, cybercrime, terrorism, crowd violence, sexual violence, white-collar crime, abuse, bullying), and behavioural sequences (across and within events).

Data sources

The research of this thematic group is informed by multiple data sources, including footage of crimes captured on cameras (e.g. CCTV), police case files, interviews, and time use surveys on smartphones.

Take a look at the website of the Video violence group.

Experts on this theme

Prof. Marie R. Lindegaard

Senior Researcher

Dr Evelien Hoeben

Researcher

Dr Peter Ejbye-Ernst

Postdoc

Prof. Wim Bernasco

Senior Researcher

Prof. Stijn Ruiter

Senior Researcher

Prof. Henk Elffers

Visiting Research Fellow

Dr Lasse Suonperä Liebst

Senior Researcher

Carlijn van Baak LLM MA

PhD Candidate

Dr Virginia Pallante

Postdoc

Hans Myhre Sunde MPhil

PhD Candidate

Joska Appelman MSc

PhD Candidate

Daniëlle Stibbe MSc

PhD Candidate

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